By TERRENCE S. MCAULIFFE
The Middlebury Planning and Zoning Commission (P&Z) on Nov. 5 unanimously approved a zoning regulations update allowing crematoriums. It also approved an inlaw apartment on Watertown Road and a permit renewal for excavation and grading at Benson Woods, and it informally discussed reconstruction of Ford’s gas station and parking changes at Ridgewood.
A second public hearing for Raymond and Panagiota (Penny) Albini to amend the zoning regulations to allow a crematory, undertaker facility, nondenominational chapel, columbarium (storage vault for funeral ash urns), and a cremation garden cemetery as permitted uses in the LI-200 zone was closed with no public comments for or against and then unanimously approved. The amendment allows the Albini family, who purchased a 33-acre commercial lot on Benson Road, to proceed with their development plans for the land.
The family owns the Albini Funeral Home in Waterbury. Attorney Michael McVerry, representing the Albinis, submitted a revision deleting the nondenominational chapel because funeral homes already have the ability to perform services and adding cemetery monument sales and fabrication as an accessory use. McVerry said the Albinis understood they need to come back with a special exception application so the specific details of the project can be addressed.
A special exception application by Lou Persico to remodel a house at 642 Watertown Road for an accessory apartment was unanimously approved. Building contractor Eric Strachan told commissioners Persico bought the house with an existing downstairs in-law setup that had never been approved. Persico’s application relocated the in-law apartment to the second floor and converted the downstairs area into a recreation room. No bedrooms were added. Strachan said all utilities would be shared and there would be no separate entrance.
The application by Middlebury Land Development LLC for renewal of an excavation and grading permit for Benson Woods, a project started in 2002 at North Benson Road, was approved for another year. Commissioners also agreed to waive the requirement for a traffic report and use a report from 2007.
The former Ford’s Sunoco station’s new owners say it will become a Citgo station with a convenience store. (Marjorie Needham photo)
An informal discussion with the new owners of the former Sunoco station on the corner of Middlebury Road and Glenwood Avenue led to a recommendation from Chairman Terry Smith that they apply for a site plan approval with a change in use. The new owners, Nadeem Khalid and his partner, Mir Sabbir Ahmed, purchased the long-closed Sunoco gas and service station from Robert and Kerrie Ford Oct. 28 and plan to open a Citgo gas station/convenience store on the same footprint as the former gas station.
Khalid and Ahmed are renovating a closed gas station in Torrington, and Khalid told the Bee-Intelligencer he also is involved with other gas stations in Connecticut. He told Commissioner Matthew Robison he had no plans for takeout food, which is not permitted in the regulations.
Smith told Khalid the site plan must include parking, architectural renderings, landscaping and lighting. In addition, he suggested a front sidewalk to encourage pedestrian traffic. Smith also noted the project needed to come before the Conservation Commission and Economic and Industrial Development Commission for approvals.
In another informal discussion, Steve Rogers, project manager for Toll Brothers at Ridgewood, was told by Smith an official revised site plan on Mylar needed to be submitted for changes to parking spot placement at Ridgewood. Rogers said some parking spaces in the original approved plan could not be built because of building footprint changes from the ones filed by the original developer, Ginsburg Development Corporation. He also said he modified a placement after hearing a resident complaint and pointed out more parking was provided than in the requirements. Smith maintained a revised Mylar needed to be filed because it was the official “as built” record of the project.
In enforcement matters, Zoning Enforcement Officer Curtis Bosco said he and Wetlands Enforcement Officer Deborah Seavey had co-authored a cease-and-desist order for Ridgewood for approximately three weeks due to their noncompliance in addressing dust control. The order has since been lifted, and he said he visits the site once a week.
The next regular P&Z meeting will be Thursday, Dec. 3, at 7:30 p.m. at Shepardson Community Center.
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